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Legal implications: history teaching and the 1996 and 2002 education acts

The following statement sums up concern which has been raised about the legal implications of the government's approach to history teaching and was published as an open letter in the Independent.

We consider that the government’s whole approach to the teaching of history, as outlined both in statements made by the Education Secretary and the Prime Minister, and in the draft history curriculum, runs contrary to the statutory duties set out in the Education Acts of 1996 and 2002.

The 1996 Education Act Section 406 states that ‘The local education authority, governing body and head teacher shall forbid… the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in the school.’ The Education Act of 2002 at sections 78 and 79 requires the Secretary of State, local education authorities, governing bodies and head teachers all to secure a ‘balanced and broadly based curriculum’.In defiance of these legal obligations, the government’s attitude to the teaching of history is underpinned by an unbalanced promotion of partisan political views. The Education Secretary has gone on record stating that the purpose of the changes which he proposes is to make history teaching ‘celebrate the distinguished role of these islands in the history of the world’ and to portray Britain as ‘a beacon of liberty for others to emulate' . He spoke in parliament of history lessons which focused on 'British heroes and heroines' and the Prime Minister has referred to the teaching of 'our island story in all its glory' .Furthermore the draft curriculum document reflects this unbalanced national triumphalism. This is evident in the emphasis which it places on 'how Britain influenced the world' (to the exclusion of the reverse) and on the importance of 'the concept of nation and of a nation’s history’ – second in the list of concepts required to be to imparted to 5-7 year old infants after the most basic time-related vocabulary. It is also evident in more subtle ways such as its handling of slavery, which is not mentioned as part of ‘the development of a modern economy’ and which is listed elsewhere as ‘the slave trade and the abolition of slavery’, implicitly giving equal weight to the two.Given that the new history curriculum has been widely criticised for its Anglo-centric focus, its marginalising of the role of women and non-white ethnic groups, and its wholesale failure to reflect the views of those appointed originally to advise the government, it falls well short of the requirement to be 'balanced and broadly based'. The presence in the draft curriculum of the occasional individual such as Mary Seacole, herself a late addition to it, has rightly been described as a ‘garnishing of tokenism’ by an original adviser to the Education Secretary on the history curriculum, Professor Simon Schama.

Over 2.5K people have signed a parliamentary e-petition calling for the government to Keep the History Curriculum Politically Neutral, which states that 'the use of the education system to promote a nationalist political agenda will stop history being a vehicle for teaching critical thought and is an assault on academic freedom'. The government's approach has been criticised as 'politically biased' and as 'going down the route of propaganda' by leading UK historians.The Department for Education has not made a serious attempt to refute or to address the charge of political bias and the Education Secretary has given further evidence of his political partisanship by frequently branding his critics ‘Marxists’ and ‘lefties’, a clear indication of his determination to exclude one end of the political spectrum.We therefore consider that there are strong grounds for believing that this curriculum, should it be implemented, and any further changes to the teaching of history which seek to impose a political bias or flout the requirement for breadth and balance, would be unlawful.

This statement was printed, almost in full, on the letters page of The Independent on Wed June 13th. It was also the subject of an article which can be read here. The headline in the print edition of the paper misleadingly implied that we were taking issue with the GCSE revamp as opposed to the proposed National Curriculum and the various statements on history education from Gove and Cameron. The Independent has been informed of this.

SIGNATURES

Robert Evans, Regius Professor of History Emeritus, University of Oxford

Jonathan Hart, Head of History, Dinnington Comprehensive School

Guy Halsall, Professor of History, University of York

Stephen Hodkinson, Professor of Ancient History, University of Nottingham

Matt Houlbrook, Tutorial Fellow and Lecturer in Modern British History, Magdalen College, Oxford

Angela Piccini, Dr/Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol

David Priestland, University Lecturer in Modern History, Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford

Eric Rosenthal, Head of History, Slough Grammar School

Professor Richard Toye, University of Exeter

Alex Woolf, Senior Lecturer in History, University of St Andrews

Zoe Abrahams, Teacher, Godolphin & Latymer School

Hakim Adi, Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora, University of Chichester

Tanya Ahmed, Head of History

Sophie Ambler, Research Associate, King's College London

Esther Arnott, History teacher Lampton School

Jaime Ashworth, Ph.D. Independent writer and researcher

Tessa Bidgood, Head Of History

Coletter Bowie, GTA, University of Glasgow

Elizabeth Boyle, Research Fellow, St Edmund's College, Cambridge

Nikki Brewer, Citizenship Teacher

Samuel Burrowes, History Teacher, George Mitchell School

Ruth Bush, Research Fellow, University of Westminster

Elizabeth Carr, Head of History, Presdales School

Adam Chapman, Editor and Training Coordinator, Victoria County History

Alison Ray, PhD Candidate in Medieval History, University College London

John Shepherd, Professor of Modern British History, University of Huddersfield

Helen Steele, Research Information Advisor for Arts & Humanities, University of Leicester

Louisa Taylor, PhD Candidate Medieval History UCL

Steven Taylor, Historian and Former Secondary History Teacher/University of Leicester

Vanessa Traill, Access Tutor, University of Glasgow

Mike Tyler, Danelaw Centre for Living History

Christopher Uden, Vice-principal, International American School of Warsaw, Poland

Carol Wallbanks, Head of History, Preston.

COMMENTS

What is proposed by Mr Gove is not history, but ideology.Charles Insley, Senior lecturer in History, University of Manchester

Tim Montgomerie quoted in Thursday's Daily Mirror: 'While I would love the nation's children to be taught History Gove style "all Henry VIII, Shaftesbury and Churchill" I wouldn't like Ed Balls having that power.'Clear evidence that the Conservatives see the history curriculum as a means of promoting a politically partisan ideology.Martin Spafford, Subject Leader for History, George Mitchell School

History curriculum - in fact no curriculum - should be politically biased and based so fundamentally on the accumulation of knowledge. In Russia, Putin is doing something similar and, although I'm not saying this government is facist, it is also what the Nazis did in the 1930s. We wouldn't approve of either of these regimes doing it so we shouldn't put up with from our own. Paul Smith, Head of Humanities, Up Holland High School

The agreement to pay compensation to the 'Mau-Mau' detainees is a wonderful example of how Britain often had an infamous 'role in history of the world'.By not including the history of the 'working -class' in the UK and the struggles of female and male workers for a living wage, non-lethal working and living conditions and then for the vote, tells the majoirty of our young people that they have no history. never achieved anything. By omitting the history of 'Black Britons' for the past 500+ years, and of the whole non-European world, we are giving the same message to young 'Black Britons'. And also confirming the superiority of Whites. A wonderful way to instiage gang culture and hostility.Marika Sherwood

If the Secretary of State read the OFSTED subject reports for the last twenty years he would see history is probably the best taught subject in the curriculum. In the OFSTED Subject Report of 2011 inspectors reported from a survey of 166 schools that… ‘There was much that was good and outstanding in the history seen for this survey: achievement was good or outstanding in 63 of the 83 primary schools and 59 of the 83 secondary schools visited.’ In my view the Gove curriculum, if it is passed, will be a national disgrace, dangerous and unworthy.Ian Coulson, teacher and author

The curriculum fails to meet the needs of students and will discourage children's interest in the subject.David Edwards, history teacher, bmet college

As an academic and as an EU national living and working in the UK, I am deeply worried by this government's attempts to promote narrow-minded nationalism through its history curriculum. The proposed curriculum is not only highly unlikely to inspire pupils and prepare them better for further study, it is deeply biased and insulting in its omissions and nationalist focus.Ann-Marie Einhaus, Lecturer, Department of Humanities, Northumbria University

There's nothing more to say. All that is left if for the government to listen.Kathleen Layton-Jones, Associate Lecturer, Open University

Why is it, when all across Europe and beyond our History curriculum and deeply thoughtful approach to History teaching are seen as a model of good practice, that the Secretary of State seems intent on trashing the brand and taking us back decades in terms of pedagogy and content? Our applied knowledge model is seen as something to aspire to elsewhere: for example Singapore actively recruits new teachers from England, China has a rising number of students doing the A-S and A2 exam, and our teachers are frequently are brought in to run inset in the systems the Secretary of State says outperform ours. Other countries are changing their education systems to build transferable skills: the way ahead for flexible economies and responsive work forces/ enabled citizens, ...and England... in danger of lurching back into the nineteen fifties! Enter stage right- jingoism, a woefully narrow Anglo-centric view, dead white men and token women and 'ethnics', flat caps, overlarge blazers, flannel shorts and a poverty of aspiration dressed in the clothes of ambition.Dean Smart Senior Lecturer in History and Citizenship Education, University of the West of England, Bristol

It's just bad history.Tehmina Goskar Heritage Practice, Penzance

Not sure that history is ever politically neutral but Gove's sub-1066 version of 'our island story' seems to promote some rather narrow views.Jaime Ashworth Ph.D. Independent writer and researcher.

As a retired lecturer but still a working historian and independent scholar, I resent the attempts of a single political party to control the content and form of the history curriculum at any level. History is what happened, warts and all, and professional historians learn very early in their careers not to cherry-pick the good bits and ignore the rest. Pity the Education Minister and his advisers haven't taken this simple process on board.Ann Williams, Former lecturer, Polytechnic of North London

The appropriation of history for political ends works along all ideological axis. Fear of 'the left', whatever amorphous enemy that may be, must be countered with the fear of historicism, of essentialism, of the worst aspects of nationalism.Nick Hall, Historian, Independent | Researcher, Wolfson College, University of Oxford

A travesty to History, education and our children's future. Does Mr Gove and this non-elected Government want us living under a Regime, as this surely is?Lottie Clark Heritage Project Coordinator, History Graduate, Museology PostGraduate, Universities of Sheffield & Manchester (respectively)

I am living abroad but I am a British history teacher and I am shocked by these terrible reforms!Christopher Uden Vice-principal, International American School of Warsaw, Poland

Does Mr Gove have any grasp of the reality of what interests children when it comes to history? In order to hook children in, you must grab their attention and spark their imaginations.I fear his proposals have totally the opposite effect.Keith Fells, Living history interpretor

The discipline of history teachers children to endeavour to divine the true causes and consequences of events in humans' pasts.It should teach the to approach the past striving to maintain a view that is based solely on an assessment of available evidence. To try and approach this task with one's objective upon commencement being "to celebrate" Britain or to demonstrate it's "glory" makes a mockery of the discipline. Engaging in as neutral a way possible with the available evidence, whilst holding ones own prejudices in check, it is nevertheless apparent that the historical record of the early 21st century will clearly show that Michael Gove was an ar.....Lewis Davies. Teacher of History JFS

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